Books read in 2011

[pellegrina]

For the first time in years I have made my target of eight books a month! The figure of 96 does include one book I read twice this year, so if you count the list, it will only come to 95, but since I do include re-reads, it makes no sense to exclude re-reads in the same year. Tomorrow's task will be learning to do pivot tables again so I can run

Comments

[daniel_saunders]

Well done - I didn’t read 96 books in 2011! The exact figure is hard to calculate, but I think it was in the fifties.

I read Fludd when I was in a book club. I didn’t like it very much, and I don’t think anyone else did either. I thought Regeneration was excellent (not a book club book).

I’ve been meaning to read Black-out/All Clear for some time. First I was waiting for the second volume, then the paperbacks, then I prioritized other books. Perhaps in 2012?

[pellegrina]

Yes, I was halfway through Black-out when I realized it was Part 1 only, but luckily I only had 6 months to wait. I enjoyed them a lot, just found the ending a bit weak. Have you read Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog?

Is that a Kafka I see in your usericon?

[daniel_saunders]

Have you read Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog?

Yes, I thought they were both great, in different ways. I've also read the short story Fire Watch, which was the first story in that fictional universe, although Willis later ret-conned some details.

It is Kafka in my userpic, one of two literary ones I have, the other one being the Bod. I only uploaded the Kafka one a week or two ago (from Wikimedia commons).

[didiusjulianus]

Recommend 3 & I might get to them this century ;)

[pellegrina]

Hm, well bearing in mind that I don't know what kind of things you like to read other than (presumably!!!) JRRT... I would say Sylvia Townsend Warner, because I recommend her to everybody; pretty much anything by Barbara Hambly (her backlist is available as ebooks now); and maybe Romanitas, because I would be interested to know what you think of it and unlike most of the others, it's in print!

[na_lon]

Impressive list. Do you keep a record of them as you read them? Maybe I should start to do that now that I am reading more again courtesy of the commute...

[pellegrina]

Yes, I have the master list in my little filofax, and type it all up into a spreadsheet in December. It does have a slightly warping effect towards the end of the year when I tend to put off long chunky books in favour of quick reads - possibly I shouldn't count them as I go so I don't know till the end how I've been doing.

[eledonecirrhosa]

I've read the first two Anita Blake novels and they were okay. But friends who have read more of the series warn me that they eventually switch from books with plots to books with no plots and lots of shagging. My friend Jane's review of the last one she read was: "Smut! Pure smut!" and another friend complained that the heroine kept "disappearing into a pile of were-leopards

[pellegrina]

I read The Scars of Evolution long enough ago that I don't remember much of the detail, and my existing scientific knowledge is way too patchy to be in a position to judge whether her science is good or bad. I do remember suspecting she was skating over a lot of other stuff and that in her enthusiasm to promote her theory, she was probably pushing her arguments a bit too far, but it was an interesting read all the same. I've been reading a lot of blog posts attacking popular science "just so" stories of evolutionary psychology (what's the evidence for gender relations and division of labour in prehistoric humanoids again?) applied to how we "should" be living now. Also the "outsider bravely battling tired old establishment with brave new theory" trope sets off my crank-o-meter something terrible.

[eledonecirrhosa]

You might like Explaining Human Origins by Wiktor Stoczkowski, then. It is an academic analysis of how the evolution "just so" stories are constructed from jigsaw pieces of earlier stories, including mythology and cultural baggage. Sometimes new evidence just gets slotted into the old stories, sometimes it causes them to mutate.

Don't know if there is any physical evidence of division of labour in prehistoric humans (a cavewoman fossilised in the act of doing housework???). IIRC it stems from the fact that we can't explain modern human sexual dimorphism - particularly size and strength differences - in terms of polygynous mating systems or alpha pair mating systems, which is the purpose of that size and strength difference in all other mammals. (Human polygamy is nothing like animal polygamy, because feeble old men don't get beaten up by strapping young men and have their wives stolen as a matter of course).

Therefore it must be for something else... therefore division of labour...

[apademek]

Charlotte Pitt - Mary Sue. What does this mean?

[pellegrina]

Not sure how many spoilers to include in my reply! Are you asking what is a Mary Sue, or why is Charlotte reminding me of one?

[apademek]

I have read many of the Anne Perry novels including the ones you read last year, but just don't understand your comment next to "Seven Dials". Hence my answer to your question is yes to both parts.

Incidentally do you reckon you have to have read a complete book to include it on your list? Gurthaew and I both started a fantasy novel, name and author completely forgotten, on holiday in Sudan and gave up within 10 pages. We passed it to a friend, who has to read on a plane and she is getting on rather better. It starts with a bloke wandering around London moping over some woman who dumped him years ago.

[pellegrina]

Ah, the comment doesn't refer specifically to Seven Dials, but more to the character arc with Victor Narraway. I read all the Pitt novels within less than a fortnight and the combination of Thomas and Charlotte's idealised marriage and Narraway's isolation and his feelings for Charlotte end up making her feel a bit too good to be true. It made me suspect Perry is writing the Pitts as this ideal cosy couple as comfort reading even as she tries to address difficult moral questions. This is probably the secret of her commercial success